Place Mat Process

Place Mat Process

From the Quarterly Journal Oct/Nov/Dec 1995 (pdf)
From the recording G-3-10-95


The “Place Mat” is the most powerful process of Deliberate Creating offered, so far, because it helps you to clearly focus, without resistance. A woman said, “Abraham, this is like magic!” We replied, “It seems like magic because you have been wanting these things for years. But now you want, with no resistance.”


Esther and Jerry have been using this process for about a month. Very often, when they are having lunch, they are at a hotel or at a coffee shop somewhere and there’s often a paper place mat there. If there is not, Esther gets a big piece of paper from her purse. They draw a line right down the middle of the paper and on the left side they write, Things to do—Jerry and Esther. And on the right side they write, Things to do—Universe. On their side of the page they write what they plan to take action on. On the other side they write what they would like the Universe to act on.

Now the power of this Placemat Process is this: When you tell the Universe what you want, you accomplish the only two prerequisites in Deliberate Creating. The first is, you identify your object of desire. The second is, you have no resistance. More positively stated, you allow it. Want it and allow it—and it is, you see.


Sometimes people say, “Well, Abraham, shouldn’t I face reality?”
We say, no, never do that.
Never face reality unless it is perfect in every way.


Esther has always been a big maker of lists; Esther has always had about 10 days’ work on her Things To Do Today List—and very often the list serves as an excuse for her to become overwhelmed. In other words, she has so many things to do that she cannot possibly do them, and so the Things To Do Today List sort of drags her down.

What Esther is discovering now is that she only puts on her list what she really intends to do and in that way there is very little resistance even in the things she is going to do. And anything else that she wants, whether it’s today or a year from today or 10 years from today—she writes it on the right side of the list and allows the Universe to deal with it.

The other day as they left one of the restaurants, Jerry said, “Do you want to take that place mat with you?” And Esther said, “This is the best part. There’s no follow-up.” There was only one thing on her side, anyway, and 45 on the Universe’s side. She just left it there for the Universe to deal with. There is no follow-up, you see, not anything for her to drag around and hound herself about. And so, these are the sorts of things that you are doing there.

You see, there is this constant steady Stream of Well-being flowing to you, and do you know that in the moment you say, “I prefer or I like or I appreciate or I want anything—in that moment, the heavens literally part for you and the Nonphysical Energies, in that instant, begin orchestrating the manifestation of your desire—in that instant.

Faster than you can speak it, the Energy begins to flow and circumstances and events, in an orchestration that we cannot begin to describe, begin to take place in order to give you exactly what you want—and if it were not for your resistance, it would come really fast, you see.

You don’t have to keep telling the Universe what you want. You really only have to tell the Universe once. The advantage of continuing to talk about it is that you get clearer about it. In other words, usually you cannot speak everything that you want with your first statement, and so, the more you talk about it the more you fine-tune it.

But as you say, I want it, the Universe begins it, and then you say, I would like it to be this way, and the Universe modifies that, and then you say a little bit of this would be nice, and the Universe...you see what we’re getting at? And once you are clear about what you want, once you have zeroed in on it and you know what you want—it is on the way to you. It is done. The manifestation of it will probably follow later, because there is, most often, enough resistance so that you don’t have it instantly.

The Universe will never fail you.

The Universe will always give you what you have asked for. The question is, how soon will you allow it? How many things will you use as your excuse to have resistance that does not allow it? That is the only question. “How long am I going to hang on to these habits of thought that don’t let it in.” And the good news is, if ever you are not letting it in—you’ve got a signal that’s telling you. That’s what negative emotion is. Negative emotion means, “I’m right now vibrating in a place where I can’t let it in.”


It is not more difficult
to create a castle than a button.
Most of you have more buttons
than castles,
however,
because they’re easier to expect.



The statement that we like to make that’s very powerful is: when you are looking at the problem you’re resistant to the solution because when you’re looking at the problem you’re vibrating there. So the Energy of solution cannot come to you. It wants to because within you there is the desire, but it cannot come to you because your vibration of resistance is there because of your attention to the problem.

Sometimes people say, “Well, Abraham, shouldn’t I face reality?” We say, no, never do that. Never face reality unless it is perfect in every way.

All really is very well with you. It is our strong wanting that you relax and acknowledge that. Have fun with all of this. You’re all making much too much of all of it. You act like it’s like life or death, but there isn’t any death. And so, what it’s really about is fun or more fun! Pleasure or more pleasure! Clarity or more clarity! It’s about Well-being that you’re eking out or Well-being that you’re allowing to flow rambunctiously. Well-being abounds. Sometimes you have to step back from the circumstances of your moment in order to recognize that.

Next time you’re in a really bad place where it feels like everything is crashing down around you, go outside and acknowledge that the earth is still spinning in its orbit, and say, “Somebody is taking care of that.” In other words, you don’t usually put that on your side of the place mat. “Make sure the earth spins in its orbit today, manage the microbiology of the planet, make sure that the water content remains stable, don’t let any water evaporate from our atmosphere so that we become a desert, maintain the oxygen content of our air, make sure that the seeds continue to come from the parent plants, so that we always have food.” We don’t see you putting any of that on your Things To Do Today List. Somehow you accept that there is something that is going well.

And so, whenever you find yourself sort of bamboozled by the condition of your moment, step back and look at what’s on the other side of the place mat and how well things really are going. “Let’s see, the earth is spinning, yes, that’s going well. The sun comes up every morning and gives our plants what they need to grow. That’s going very well. Yes, still plenty of air for all of us, that’s going well. The fish are still growing in the sea, that’s going very, very well. The contrast still abounds, which gives us opportunity to choose. That’s going very well, and people are still coming forth in great numbers and the planet seems to be surviving and actually thriving. That’s going very well.” In other words, as you acknowledge how many amazing, extraordinary things of momentous importance are going very well, you come to acknowledge, “We’re nit-picking. Maybe we’re finding too many things, in our feeling of vulnerability, to push against, and maybe I’ll not do that anymore. Maybe everybody else will keep using things as an excuse, but maybe I’ll enjoy the Stream of Well-being,” you see.

Lighten up. Have fun with it. Challenge no one about anything. If somebody is screaming in your face that you’re wrong, say to them, “You’re probably right.” If somebody says, the world is coming to an end, say to them “Maybe, but aren’t we having a good time, today?” If somebody says, “There is a disease running rampant and it’s going to sweep across the earth and it’s going to kill all of us,” say, “I don’t believe that that is possible—because I know that Well-being abounds. I don’t believe that anything that is bad could ever take over all this that is good. It is illogical. Well-being abounds. Oh, I think there are pockets where people have focused and caused a sort of shadow that is disallowing the Well-being, I don’t disagree with you there. I think there are places where Well-being is not being allowed—but I think it is minuscule in comparison with the Well-being.”

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